Michigan's Sherrone Moore has fearless reaction to reports of Connor Stalion's deleted messages being leaked: "I look forward to them being released" 

It was supposed to be an exciting year for new Michigan coach Sherrone Moore. However, memories of last year's sign-stealing controversy involving Connor Stalions linger.

The NCAA recently released a Notice of Allegations which will likely hit Moore with Level II violations due to his part in the affair. The report alleges that the Wolverines coach deleted a thread of text messages with Stalions thus interfering with the investigations. The deleted texts were recovered.

ESPN's report states that Stalions will likely receive Level 1 violations for his role in the sign-stealing scandal, and several other Michigan staffers were implicated in the situation.

During a Tuesday interview, Moore remained defiant while facing reports that the deleted messages between himself and Stalions would be leaked.

“All I can say is I look forward to them being released,” Moore said.

For his part in the matter, Stalions resigned in November. Meanwhile, former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, who is now the coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, has continuously asserted his innocence in the controversy. Harbaugh was handed a show-cause penalty for a related infraction.

Sherrone Moore likely to get slap on the wrist

Although the Level II violations indicate that Sherrone Moore deleted a thread of 52 text messages between himself and staffer Connor Stalions when the sign-stealing investigation began, it is thought that his part was mostly interference.

During an episode of the College GameDay podcast, ESPN analyst Pete Thamel spoke about Moore's likely punishment from the NCAA. Thamel speculated that it would not be heavy because the new Michigan coach turned over the text messages.

“As a Level II, I would think ultimately that gets distilled to a short suspension of some kind,” Thamel said. “It could be no suspension, it could be a short suspension. I don’t think we’re looking at anything — it’s hard. If you look at what happened in the college basketball scandal, it’s hard to have a significant — you’ve really got to break some rules to do that.

“He obviously allegedly deleted a thread of 52 text messages,” Thamel said. “It does later say he turned them over. If the text messages had like, ‘Hey Connor, what’s Ohio State’s run sign?’ or whatever, it would probably be noted in here and it’s not. So, I think that he’s in here for the act of failing to cooperate, basically. "

The ongoing investigation of Sherrone Moore's role in the sign-stealing fiasco is not the sort of introduction he would've hoped for heading into what promises to be a blockbuster college football season.